try adjusting the volume 3 minutes after you wake up from a full night's sleep. Your ears will be very relaxed and very sensitive. Put a small mark on the volume control knob pointer. Adjust for best sound.
Repeat just before you are going to bed. Your ears now are very tired and very sensitive. Put a small mark on the volume control knob pointer. Adjust for best sound.
Listen 1 hour after coming home from work. Adjust for best sound.
Now compare all the volume settings. Are they pretty close together? Or do you find that the volume goes up after coming home from work or at work? (If you have a portable).
This experiment needs the exact same music being played. This experiment does not take into account equipment warmup. Obviously if you have tubes or class-A equipment you will most probably need to pre-warm the equipment for one hour before listening, so a timer may be necessary.
Just as I say that a man and woman should not speak to each other, or turn on the TV or radio for one hour after coming home, one of the worse things you can do is listen to your car radio while going home. Chances are you will be turning up the volume to overcome traffic road noise and to divert the mind from road rage. Your ears will get dull in such a case. So listening to music immediately after getting home does not provide them any rest. You will be turning up the volume to overcome their dullness.
The best thing you can probably do for your hearing is a nice hot shower the minute you get home from work. Your body should feel more relaxed, which should help your hearing to get more relaxed. Don't turn on any extraneous noise, like TV, radio, lawn mower, power tools, etc. Just relax and let your ears retune themselves to quiet. Taking a walk near a heavily trafficked road will probably not help. The asphalt grating will probably hurt your ears.